Computer boots up-then shuts down-Help

From my experience these are the three most common reasons for the condition described.

Overheating - lint and dust can cause problem or a fan failure (generally the fan cooling the cpu)

Power Supply - Could be as simple as needing to blow out dust which creates overheating. More likely though that it is failing and needs replacement. Overheating can causse. Many computers come with power supplies that are marginal for supplying power for installed components. If any hardware is added over time they can quickly become overworked which leads to failure. Of course they can also simply fail over time.

Bad memory stick - If there are multiple sticks installed remove one at at time and try starting computer until you find the bad one.

I wish the OP would come back and clarify "starts to boot and immediately shuts down". That would clarify all the guessing about batteries, bios, etc. Most likey the power supply is bad from the description I read. I had an old HP desktop that did the same, push the button, lights up, starts for about 10 seconds and then just shuts down. Twas the power supply.

Can you get a Puppy-Linux LiveCD ?
If you can, start up on it, if it does the same thing, you have a hardware problem (Power Supply?), if it starts up with Puppy, you have a software problem, you can save ALL your data while in Puppy.

The BIOS battery is most likely dead. Mine lasted 10 years. I purchased a new lap-top 3 years ago. My computer was a Gateway.

Does your computer end up stopped with a DOS message stating a "checksum error"?

If so hitting the enter key will open a window in the system BIOS menu. Use the "up" and "down" keys on keyboard to highlight date. Pick the month on pop-up window and hit "enter". Now enter date and year (2013) and hit enter. Now highlight "time" and enter time (i.e. 1300 for 1.00 pm) and hit "enter".

Now hit "F10" to save changes to BIOS. Computer should now boot correctly. I am still using my old Gateway for another 3 years without replacing the battery. I like my old free-bee business program.

I need to go through this procedure each time I start the Gateway (circa 1999).

bob_nestor wrote:
You might try replacing the battery on the motherboard. The power button on most desktops is a lot like the Start button on Windows. It is used to start and stop the computer depending on setting in the BIOS and how log the button is held in. If the motherboard battery is dead the BIOS settings get lost so the computer may be confused about what it should be doing when the power button is depressed.

Every case I've seen with a bad MB battery, the BIOS reverts to default values and continues to boot.

Bad memory modules shouldn't cause the system to power off. It'll freeze or blue screen.

Do you get any beeps before it fails? If so what are they?

Often times beep codes are memory or keyboard or some such.

Mike s

Do you get anything on the POST screen before it shuts off?

I had a similar problem. It turned out to be a failed memory stick. If all the above suggestions don't work, remove and reseat the memory. To trouble shoot the memory further, if you have more than one stick, remove one at a time and see if the boot-up works.

First check if you can boot into Windows Safe Mode. Power up and keep tapping the F8 key, and select Safe Mode with Networking. If so, then more likely a corrupt driver or system OS file. If not, then very likely an issue with the power supply.

Did you recently add any new hardware, new video card, etc. Or did the case get bumped or dropped?